JOSEPH BAKER

31 Days of Writing Family History Challenge

January 25, 2022:   Paternal Great, Great Grandfather #3  - Joseph Baker (1858-1914)

by Nancy Gilbride Casey

Joseph Baker, another 2nd great grandfather, takes us into the Canadian period of our family history, though his beginning was in western New York. Joseph Baker was born on 14 July 1858 in Sheldon, a town in Wyoming County, New York.¹

Location of Sheldon, within Wyoming County, New York (left) and Wyoming County within New York state (right).²

Though his baptismal record (below) is a bit difficult to read, it does offer a couple of interesting tidbits:

• First, Joseph was baptized Petrum Josephus Beker or Peter Joseph Beker. As we saw with Mary Josephine Baker, my grandmother, it could be that this was another example of the German naming tradition of being given a saint's name first, and then a second "call" name, which the person was known as through life. 
• Second, the surname Baker is here written as Beker. It appears that the surname changed throughout time from Becker to Baker; this variation was likely spelled phonetically.

Baptismal record of Peter Joseph Beker, son of Joseph Beker and Barbara Shiltz, recorded at St. Cecelia's Catholic Church, Sheldon, New York.

 

Joseph was born to Joseph Baker, a farmer, and Barbara Schiltz, both German immigrants to America. Little is known at present about his parents' exact origins in Germany or their reasons to emigrate, which future research should reveal.

Sometime between 1870 and 1878, however, Joseph and his family relocated to St. Catharines, Ontario, Canada. There, at age 20, Joseph "Becker" married Sarah Dyer, 18, on 19 November 1878, at the Cathedral of St. Catherine of Alexandria.³

Portion of Joseph & Sarah's civil marriage record.

At the time of his marriage, Joseph's occupation was a train brakeman. This historically dangerous job may have entailed ensuring couplings were properly set, lining switches and signaling the operator when making switches—and of course assisting in braking the train. Joseph may have had to perform braking similar to what this rather dramatic image (left) shows—though it does speak to the dangers Joseph may have faced as a brakeman. He continued to be employed by the railway industry, serving as a baggageman later in life.⁴

Joseph and Sarah had 10 children, including Edward Joseph Baker, Grandma Gilbride's father. Among the couple's seven sons and three daughters was a Catholic priest, the couple's son Vincent Baker. (See a profile of Rev. Vincent in this post.) 

As with most families, there is both glory and tragedy, and this family was no different. The couple lost their youngest daughter Veronica, when she fell into a bonfire at the age of 3.⁵

Joseph Baker himself died fairly young, at the age of 56, on 7 December 1914 in St. Catharines.⁶

BONUS: Lineage Chart from Joseph Baker to me.

The further this project goes back in time, the harder it might be to picture an ancestor's relationship to me. Hopefully this image, taken from the website FamilySearch will help. (BTW, you too can access charts like this and learn more about your ancestors on FamilySearch.org.) I'll include these charts in the remaining posts in this series.

¹ St. Cecilia Catholic Church, Sheldon, New York, Baptisms, Marriages and Burials, 1848, Volume B1, no page noted, "Temporis missionis per Rev. P. Tschonkens, CSSR," baptism of Petrum Josephus Beker, 14 July 1878; image, FamilySearch (https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/3:1:3Q9M-CS4R-59K9-2 : accessed 25 January 2022); citing FHL microfilm 007900127, image 166.

² Schzmo, "Wyoming County NY Sheldon town highlighted," (2016), Wikimedia Commons (https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Wyoming_County_NY_Sheldon_town_highlighted.svg : accessed 25 January 2022);  licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 Unported license.

³ Ontario, Canada, Marriage Registrations 1878, record 5929, marriage of Joseph Becker and Sarah Dyer (1878); "Canada, Ontario Marriages, 1869-1927," database with images, FamilySearch (https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/3:1:9Q97-Y39R-2NK : accessed 25 January 2022); FHL film 004529122, image 904; Archives of Ontario, Toronto, Record Group 80-5.

⁴ For occupation: Ibid. For job description: Wikipedia (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brakeman#/media/File:900801-peckwell-apicnic.jpg : accessed 25 January 2022), "Brakeman," rev. 25 January 2021, at 01:45. Engraving by Peckwell,  published on the cover of The Railroad Conductor, vol. 7, no. 15 (Aug. 1, 1890).; in the public domain. For later occupation: Registrar General, Ontario, Canada, Deaths 1914, no. 19724, Joseph Baker, 7 December 1914; "Canada, Ontario Deaths, 1869-1937 and Overseas Deaths, 1939-1947," database with images, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/3:1:S3HY-67JS-FNG : accessed 25 January 2022); citing FHL film 004035466, image 325; citing Archives of Ontario, Toronto.

⁵ "A Deadly Bon-Fire," St. Catharines Standard, 21 April 1903, p. 3; image supplied by Niagara Peninsula Branch, Ontario Genealogical Society, Concord.

⁶ Ontario, Canada Deaths 1914, Joseph Baker, 1914.